‘The Artist’ & ‘The Adventures Of Tintin’ Win At The PGA Awards

So did everyone forget about this or was it the folly of having an awards presentation on the biggest weekend of the Sundance Film Festival? Or was it just us? And where was the usually email happy The Weinstein Company on this? Guess everyone is busy in Park City (including us).

Anyway, on Saturday night, the best augur yet for who will win Best Picture next month at the Oscars was revealed at the Producers Guild Awards. The winner of the PGA has also won the Oscar the last four years straight — "The King's Speech," "The Hurt Locker," "Slumdog Millioniare," "No Country For Old Men" — and The Weinstein Company is hoping that streak continues as their silent movie "The Artist" took home The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures. Or simply put, they won the best movie. The pic beat out a very crowded field including pics from veterans like Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg ("Midnight In Paris," "Hugo" and "War Horse"). But it seems the battle for cinematic nostalgia was won by Michel Hazanavicius, Kim Novak be damned.

But it wasn't all bad news for Spielberg. While no one would have guessed five months ago that it would be "The Adventures Of Tintin" that would be his best shot at Oscar over "War Horse," the Peter Jackson-co-produced comic adaptation beat the crowd in animation category. Facing off against a trio of sequels/spinoffs ("Cars 2," "Kung Fu Panda 2," "Puss In Boots") and another movie voters don't remember ("Rango"), the win is not so surprising in retrospect.

And in a nicely earned win, "Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest" took home the prize in the documentary category. But that's where the journey for this movie will end as it didn't make the Oscar doc shortlist.

The Oscar nominations are unveiled tomorrow morning, and it's probably a safe bet "The Artist" will be ranking highly in most major categories. And this win at the PGAs could be a major first step towards an armload of awards at the Kodak Theater next month. Full list of winners here.